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User blog:Julia-B184/Civil War - Part Two
The leading members of X-COM gathered around the gigantic display screen in the Situation Room, several of the higher-ranking soldiers further away from the engineers and scientists of the project. Central Officer Bradford and Dr. Vahlen were the only ones paying attention to the updates at the moment, though they'd been waiting for a notification from their spokesman for the Council of Nations. The Council of Nations was rather simply representatives of the Royal Family and other large companies that had put their funding into the X-COM project on Mandalore - given the military history of the colony, they had wanted a way to protect their investments. They would then elect yet another anonymous representative to relay the decisions to the soldiers on Mandalore, who had offered only monthly reports until the formation of ADVENT. Needless to say, with the more urgent situation, not only had X-COM been repurposed, but the Council wanted far more reports than before. And the screen began to flicker to life, showing the familiar sillhouette of the Council Spokesman, flanked by an orange and blue light on each side. "Hello, Central." The Spokesman addressed Bradford directly, and the rest of the present operatives started to listen. "I realize we have much to discuss about... changes to the project." "I assume the Families have had a change of heart now that their investments are in danger." Bradford replied with some distaste, not approving of Mandalore being treated solely like a trading post. "Your previous order to preserve all Mandalorian life has officially been rescinded." If the Spokesman had caught on to Bradford's tone, he didn't make it clear. "You have now been authorized and ordered to use any force necessary to fight ADVENT back, and win back the planet and her people. Despite complaints due to the attempted Westergard secession in 2568, collateral damage to company warehouses will be ignored." This raised some joking comments from the operatives present, along the lines of "Yeah, but do we get paid extra if we protect the warehouses?" and "Stock market value go down too far to care now?". Again, they were ignored. "Please take great care in your tactics, Central." The Spokesman requested. "A reveal of the X-COM project to the Mandalorian public, and the families'... less than selfless reasons for putting it together... would only help ADVENT gain more support from the people and hinder our efforts." "You want us to delete any data in the event that it could be found." "Yes. Retrieval of data from your dropship or an assault on your home base could have disastrous political consequences for us all. Connection between the project and the Orb Union would hand the rest of the population right over to ADVENT, and we would lose Mandalore." "With all due respect..." Dr. Vahlen stepped forward. "While we can combat ADVENT's forces militarily, we cannot truly combat them politically. Their promises have won over Mandalore. There isn't much we can do to help that, nor can we discredit them. Minus the... controversial Knights of Ren, they're patriots at heart. They know better than to give us something to work with so easily." "We have prepared for this side of the conflict, Doctor." The Spokesman reassured. "Don't worry yourselves about that - we have one of our best scouts on the way to go far past ADVENT city lines. We can't risk a full-time X-COM operative making such a move, but this scout is our best. He will help work on what we can use against them." Dr. Vahlen, prompted by a glance from Bradford, nodded to show she was satisfied with the answer. The latter turned back to the Spokesman. "Anything else?" "Our complete list of guidelines will be sent within the hour, and we expect that every operative will follow it to the letter or risk ejection from the project. We will hope for another report when our scout arrives." The Spokesman only said one more thing before signing off. "And please, Central, next time we need to discuss these matters where the more patriotic operatives won't interrupt. I expect project-wide acknowledgement of your orders within the next 24 hours." Category:Blog posts